Focus 05 1.8 TDCi -- Red 'cog' warning light.

The light for the "change up you numpty" rev limiter is a red vertical arrow as far as I know.

If it was that serious that you needed to stop immediately, I would hope that a more obvious (to the severity) notice would be displayed (buzzer possibly?). Our Peugeot helpfully has a "STOP" light. If that came on, then I'd clearly know what it meant - I needed to stop.

The recovery driver will plug it into his car and tell you the book definition of what the error code(s) mean. Or I plug in my laptop with VAG-COM and get the information myself if it`s available.

It`s still cheaper getting it checked out than making an engine go bang :-)

Competition as in racing, or as in competitors? Either way VERY scary, but I don`t drive new manual cars. Driven a lot of automatic motors with the ability to knock them up or down a gear as required (Land rover disco, shogun and land cruiser) and never seen that message come up, no matter what I`ve been doing to them!

Now they DO scare me at how thick they can be :-)

Depends:

a) If you have recovery.

b) Who you have it with.

Indeed.

Chris

If you choose not to have a recovery service, then you risk having to pay a garage big money just to look at a car. I know what makes a lot more sense for me :-) Again if you choose a crap recovery service, that`s the price you pay :-)

Yep, each year when my AA renewal comes up I wonder whether to bother. I've only used them once in 21 years. I always end up doing it though.

Chris

I`de very strongly suggest you get feedback from other people who have dealt with your recovery garage recently, and if you`re unhappy with the stories you hear then change company. Some companies are not worth having cover with, and while it may change in different areas there are some that are well known to be a waste of space. i`m sure if you do a bit of digging you`ll find out which companies to use, and which companies have no care at all for their customers.

Er, what prompted that response?

My reason for pondering whether to renew each year or not has nothing to do with my perception of the quality of the service I have chosen. I understand a little of how the AA works; I have a relative who works for them.

I only wonder whether to have *any* breakdown service or not.

Chris

Don't we have a separate (lesser) test and licence for automatics in the UK?

Kostas

Kostas Kavoussanakis ( snipped-for-privacy@epcc.ed.ac.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Test's the same - but if you take it in an auto, you can only drive autos until you re-pass it in a manual.

Are you the guy with a son in law (IIRC) who`s a recovery driver for the AA? I`m not saying anything in particular about any specific recovery organisation, but the problems i`ve seen haven`t been down to the "man in the van", who all seem to do their job as well as can be expected given their circumstances (I know I wouldn`t fancy changing wheels etc in lane 1 going over the runcorn bridge, as I saw one recovery guy doing yesterday! :-) ). But I know a lot of people who`ve been left stranded for hours at a time, given a number of false ETA`s for recovery and would suggest that anyone, before renewing their cover, try and get feedback on how their choice of recovery company work in their area.

Having said that, intertia is a wonderful thing for companies on the slide customer service wise. If you`re a big brand, nobody will leave you until you manage to p1ss them off. My mum refuses to change her recovery organisation, no matter how many horror stories I tell her about the one she`s with. Lying to the police, accusing customers of lying, just not bothering to turn up at all - not going to name the company, as they may be fine where you are, but I wouldn`t touch them if they gave me a free membership :-)

It's my stepson, and he is an AA patrol.

Up until recently I honestly believed the AA provided the best service; all is not well there at the moment however...

Chris

I will say that the drivers out on the coal face that I`ve seen have been as good as ever recently. Anything else, I`m sure you know as well as anyone else :-(

If it's like the one on my Mondeo, it's the outside temperature warning light. Off for

Oh come on. A BFO red warning light means stop in every car I've driven.

How about a big hand that pops out the steering wheel and slaps you until read the manual and/or gain some common sense?

Strange red light = bad.

Strange flashing red light = very bad.

Mostly.

Vag give you one to tell you your coolants not completely full & your brake light bulb is slightly higher impoedance than they think is ideal.

Covering their arses against being sued.

Steve